Torture, Death Cases, Organ Harvesting

Mr. Zhou Xiangyang was jailed in a Chinese communist prison for nine years. He is detained in Gangbei Prison in Tianjin City. There he was locked in a confinement cell, shocked with electric batons, deprived of sleep, and severely beaten. He was also tortured by prison guards for four months with a method called “floor anchor,” in which a person's hands and feet are tied up and fixed to an iron ring on the ground for a long period of time. It is believed that another practitioner, Mr. Li Xiwang, died because of this method of torture. Mr. Zhou went on a hunger strike for over one year to protest the mistreatment he was being subjected to, and was hospitalized several times.

Two brothers, Mr. Wang Lixin and Mr. Wang Yongxin, Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted over the past 12 years by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). On February 12th, the elder brother, Mr. Wang Lixin, while working in Luoyang City, Henan Province, was arrested by the Domestic Security Team of the Luoyang Police. He was detained at the Luoyang City Detention Centre. Eight days later, he was beaten to death while still in custody. He was 51 years old.

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Wu Hongyan was speaking with people about Falun Gong on July 6th, 2011, in Zhaoyuan Park, Handan. Police arrested them. The Congtai District Police Department sentenced Ms. Wu to forced labour for 15 months. Ms. Wu was sent to the Hebei Province Women's Forced Labour Camp on August 9th. She was held in Division No. 4. The division head ordered criminal inmates to beat her because she refused to write the “three statements” to renounce practising Falun Gong. They also took turns physically abusing and mentally tormenting her. She was forced to stand still during the daytime, and at night they took turns harassing her and depriving her of sleep.

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Wang Shuxia, 45, was originally from Dagujia Township, Faku County, Liaoning Province. She lived in Hujia Village, Xiaonan Town (formerly called Tiefa Town), Diaobingshan City. Before she died she was persecuted numerous times for remaining steadfast in her belief and exercising her right to speak the truth. She once suffered a mental collapse as a result of severe physical abuse and torture under the persecution. She was sentenced and sent to Liaoning Province Women's Prison in Shenyang City on June 3rd, 2008. Only two days later, on June 5th, the prison guard notified local police that Wang had died.

Because he persists in practising Falun Gong, Mr. Lei Anxiang has been arrested and detained several times in the past 12 years. He has been subjected to forced labour twice and sentenced to jail once. He has been detained for a total of approximately eight years, during which time he was subjected to brutal torture. In the labour camp guards encouraged inmates to attack and torture Mr. Lei. They kicked and punched him. He was forced to kneel down on the ground. They put a wooden board on top of his lower legs and rolled and pressed down on them. As a result, the skin on his legs was torn off and the flesh was ripped open.

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zhou Xiangyang was arrested on March 5th, 2011, for remaining steadfast in his belief in Falun Gong. He has been held at the Binhai Prison in Tianjin. Mr. Zhou has held a hunger strike to protest the imprisonment and torture for more than 330 days since his arrest. He was sent to the Xinsheng Hospital for emergency treatment on January 16th, 2012, but IV infusion were stopped over a month ago. He is currently on the verge of death. He is unable to walk, and his heart beats average only 40 per minute.

Practitioners Mr. Liu Peng and Mr. Guo Jinfu were both sentenced to forced labour and sent to Shanghai First Forced Labour Camp. The guards shocked Mr. Liu with electric batons in the temples, ears, nose, mouth, neck, armpits, chest, back, hands and feet, until his skin was burned. They then removed his clothes, ordered him to stand in water and continued to shock him. Guards tied Mr. Guo to an iron pole and shocked him with four electric batons in various spots, including hands, ears, head and neck. His skin was burned and became blistered, and he developed incontinence as a result of this torture.

Mr. Wu Shihai was a teacher in Sichuan Province. By following the teachings of Falun Gong, he disciplined himself to be a better person and was very responsible for his work. However, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials sent him to the Deyang Prison, where he was brutally tortured. He was detained there from 2005 to 2009. Wu is now nearly blind in both eyes and unable to take care of himself. All of his toenails were pulled off during torture at the prison. His ears became deformed and were bloody from beatings. The blood hardened and dark-red swelling ensued. He also lost two front teeth due to the torture, and bruises were present on his lips and head.

In June 2011, Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zhang Weizhong was arrested. On December 15th, a hearing was held at Fengrun District Court. His attorney pleaded innocent for his client, and drew admiration from the gallery in the process of presenting his defence. Zhang Weizhong has been detained for six months, and his family and relatives are calling for his immediate release. Prior to this hearing, Zhang's wife was sentenced to four and a half years of imprisonment for practising Falun Gong. She is currently being detained at Shijiazhuang Women's Prison. Zhang Weizhong's son, who just started high school, and his 70-year old mother have no source of income without him.

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zhang Rongyue was sentenced to four years in prison for his belief in Falun Gong. Mr. Zhang was sent to Wumaping Prison on January 9th, 2012. A few days later, the prison called his family and said he “was trying to commit suicide.” Mr. Zhang was known to have said that Falun Gong practitioners should not commit suicide, because Falun Gong clearly prohibited killing and suicide. We believe that the CCP authorities must have been trying to cover up an unspeakable crime when they used the excuse of “suicide” for his condition. Mr. Zhang is very weak and in critical condition.

Two Falun Gong practitioners from Yuzhou City, Henan Province, 49-year-old Ms. Li Qiaocun and 59-year-old Ms. Li Meirong, were sentenced to four years and five years of imprisonment, respectively. Both practitioners have appealed. Ms. Li Qiaocun and Ms. Li Meirong were arrested on the morning of July 26th, 2011, as they posted information about Falun Gong and the persecution on utility poles along the roadside in Yuzhou City. Police officers took them to the Yuzhou City Detention Centre.

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zhang Yulong has been held in the Nanjing Brain Hospital (a mental hospital) for over ten years. It has been reported that Mr. Zhang is being forced to take medication and receive injections every day. He has been greatly harmed both physically and mentally. He has become delirious and can no longer take care of himself. Mr. Zhang was held in Fangqiang Forced Labour Camp in 2000 and 2001. Inmates hit Mr. Zhang in the face with shoes. Mr. Zhang’s head, face, nose, and mouth became swollen and disfigured.

Daqing City Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhang Guifang, in her 60s, was sentenced to three years in prison at the end of 2011. In February 2011, Ms. Zhang Guifang and Ms. Yang Zhanli were out walking when two cars drove up from behind and blocked their way. Six men jumped out of the cars, grabbed the two elderly women, and dragged them toward the cars and took them to the Ranghulu Police Sub-Bureau, where they claimed that someone had reported them. They searched the women and found Falun Gong DVDs and brochures. Ms. Zhang was taken to the Harbin Women's Prison on January 13th, 2012, and is currently in the prison hospital.

Yinchuan Prison is one of the facilities that assists the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in Ningxia. From July 20th, 1999 onward, nearly 100 practitioners have been detained in the prison and persecuted for long periods of time using sinister methods. The prison even employed so-called “experts” to train prison guards on how to torture practitioners. Torture methods used at the prison have included being hung up by the handcuffs, the “big hang-up”, being shocked with electric batons, being bound with rope, having to lean one's head against a wall, “tiger bench”. The prison also forced practitioners to watch videos that slander Falun Gong.

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Ma Yingquan was arrested on August 20th, 2011, by the local police and taken to a brainwashing centre, where he was brutally beaten and tortured. He recounts: "Zhang Zilong brought in an electric baton and told Zhao Jiabin to handcuff me behind my back. They shocked me for a long time while I was restrained and powerless. I could not move at all. I screamed because of the pain. They took off my clothes and started to shock me with the electric baton all over my body, including my inner thighs, genitals, belly, ears, most of my head, face, upper and lower lips, and throat. They especially shocked those areas of my body where the flesh is sensitive. They tortured me this way for a long time."